#ilovefs Report 2017: Love and Activism

on: 2017-03-15

On Tuesday 14th of February, the "I Love Free
Software" day was celebrated for its eighth consecutive year, in what
can now be called a tradition. This day has become a special day for
people all around the world to declare their love and affection not
only to their partner but also to the whole Free Software
community.

The FSFE would like to thank everybody who participated during this
year’s #ilovefs campaign. Thank you for taking the time to show your
appreciation to the people that make Free Software possible: the
developers, designers, testers, translators and projects that work hard
every day to preserve our freedoms. And thanks to everybody for your
pictures, videos, blogs and news posted during the 14th, before or
after. Because of you, the #ilovefs campaign has become an authentic
success.

FOSDEM: Find your way into love

The first love signs were shown at FOSDEM in the beginning of
February. This year we held again our IloveFS photobooth and many
people, (but don't
assume only people) posed in front of our camera in order to
confess their love for their favourite Free Software projects,
colleagues and community contributors (see
our full gallery). When we asked them why they love FS, words such
as Free Society, Democracy and Freedom were repeatedly written on our
black chalkboards. Who said, you cannot love and be wise at the same
time?

Love for Mozilla at FOSDEM

In this ambient full of love, we also distributed around 20 IloveFS
packages to Free Software projects present at FOSDEM. Each package
included a variety of stickers, leaflets, balloons and a paper with
creative ideas in order to grant some inspiration to all those
considering to participate in this year's celebrations.

Letters 'n' Roses

Roses and letters ready to be delivered to the German Paliament

631 is the number of elected MPs in the German Parliament. This is
also the number of letters
and flowers that FSFE
volunteers and staff prepared and delivered to every single one of
them for the IloveFS Day. The main aim was to use this occasion to
raise awareness among parliamentarians and invite candidates - in
advance of the German elections taking place this autumn - to support
Free Software and endorse the idea of "Public Money Public Code". But
no, this is not all...

"Public Money Public Code" projection on the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

On the very same night of the 14th, some Pirates of Hesse also took
part in the beamer action and displayed messages of Free Software
affection all around
Frankfurt.

14th

And finally, the big day has arrived. During Tuesday, 14 February, people
all around the world expressed their appreciation to Free Software and the
people that make it possible, in many ways, including blog posts, pictures, news
items, microblogs and funny memes. Keeping with the cheesy theme, heart-shaped
specially decorated chocolates could not be missing from such a day.

Also, we were really happy to see that many organisations, coming
from different backgrounds and regions, decided to promote the “I love
Free Software” campaign from their respective websites. Medialab
Prado, in Madrid, organised activities to promote the use of Free
Software during the whole day. The artist Elektroll, decided to show
his appreciation for Free Software projects with this wonderful artwork.
OSB
Alliance informed about FSFE's activities and promoted love for
Free Software on its page. In general, we would like to thank all the
organisations who decided to promote "I Love Free Software" day, like:
Ansol, Xarxanet,
Punt
Tic, Linux
Today, Gizlogic
and many others. Some Free Software projects took the occasion to send
a special ‘thank you’ to their hard working communities, like KDE
Spain, The
Document Foundation or Framasoft.

Member of the European Parliement, Jan Philipp Albrecht, sending some love to Free Software

Julia Reda, Member of European Parliament, did not miss the chance
to show her support for Free Software by calling
out Munich to stay with LiMux. Also Green MEP, Jan Philipp
Albrecht, posted on twitter about his love for Free Software and the
FSFE. In their website GrünDigital,
the German Greens expressed their political support for the Free
Software community. As did the Pirate
Party Hesse, calling for the use of Free Software in public
administrations.

We encourage everybody to mark next year's February 14 as "I Love Free
Software" day to continue this lovely campaign. Nevertheless, don't
forget: each and every day is the perfect day to show your appreciation
to Free Software and its contributors, by using, studying, sharing and
improving it.

Premsa

Previus #ilovefs reports

Our Work

As a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, Free Software Foundation
Europe works to create general understanding and support for Free Software
and Open Standards in politics, business, law and society at large.